A former Teesside University catering supervisor has fulfilled his lifetime ambition of opening an American-style diner in a bus.
Karl Buxton, currently the catering manager at Elior UK, refurbished the bus to make it look like an American diner.
Named ‘The Big Rig American Diner’ it houses an extensive menu of feel good American fast food.
Setting up the diner has been seen it’s fair share of problems but nothing the team couldn’t handle.
Sian Johnson, manager of the Big Rig, said: “It’s been very challenging nothing like I’ve ever experienced but each challenge the team has strived to work above and beyond in all aspects of customer food service.”
Once the Big Rig opened its doors it has done nothing but listen to their customers and their reviews about the food on offer.
Sian said: “We have changed most of the menu from the first week. The new menu has been put together based on customer preferences and it seems to be working a lot better.”
The diner is located in Stockton’s Mill Lane, which is a 14 minute journey by car or bus and a half hour train journey from Middlesbrough.
The diner uses local suppliers helping to support the community.
The menu offers breakfast items such their ‘Big Apple’ which has four of everything as well as pancakes with toppings of sausage and bacon.
They also have an extensive lunch and dessert menu which can be found here.
Karl is one of thousands of people who have set up their own business during the recent pandemic.
The last two years have seen thousands people lose their jobs due to Covid-19.
As a result of this, families have lost a considerable amount of income so they have had to come up with other ways to make money.
A survey carried out by TUXtra, saw that 76.7% of people had either been let go from their jobs or decided to leave.
This was a result of Covid-19 causing changes to certain workplaces and people felt like they couldn’t work under such pressing rules and regulations whilst trying to do their job effectively.
63.4% of people had said they started selling their own products on social media sites such as Facebook or Instagram.
For many, starting up their own business has been the lifeline that they needed.
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